Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c7.72

c7.72

The palace stood in an extensive park. It was full of "tame peacocks and pheasants, shady groves and trees set in clumps with branches woven together by some special cunning of horticulture, trees that are always green, that never grow old and never shed their leaves. Some of them are native, and some are brought from other lands with great care, and these adorn the place and give it glory. Birds are there, free and unconfined. They come of their own accord and have their nests and roosting places in the branches, birds of various kinds. But parrots are specially kept there, and these flock in bevies about the king. In this royal pleasance, there are lovely tanks made by hand of men, in which they kept fish of enormous size, but quite tame. No one has permission to fish for these except the king's sons while yet in their boyhood. These youngsters amuse themselves without the least risk of being drowned, while fishing in the unruffled sheet of water and learning how to sail their boats."